China is to take further measures to encourage the development of large-scale cement plants that meet environmental protection standards and curb the growth of polluting small-sized cement factories, a senior official from the central authorities' economic management arm said Wednesday.

Ma Kai, minister in charge of the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC), said only 16 percent of the output in China, the world's largest cement producer, are turned out with relatively environment-friendly techniques at present.

He said the government will encourage a reshuffle of the cement industry through merger, takeover and re-grouping of the existing cement producers. Meanwhile, it will raise the threshold for starting new cement enterprises.

He said all new cement plants to be built have to meet a minimum level of efficiency of scale, namely, a production capacity of at least 2,000 tons per day.

The SDRC is also considering of raising technical and environmental bars for the cement plants so as to curb the development of low efficient, pollution-prone small factories.

The government will encourage large-scale enterprise groups in eastern part of the country to take over technically backward cement plants in western areas, in a bid to alleviate mounting environmental pressure in these areas, Ma said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2003)